Last Updated: 25/08/2023
Maitrayana uses sport as a tool to empower girls and young women. It runs the Young People’s Initiative with as its flagship programme Pragati, a netball and life skills programme for adolescent girls (10-17 year) in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. After graduation they can continue different pathways in Maitrayana depending on their age such as participation in girls led netball clubs, thematic sessions for older girls that empower them to make/influence critical decisions e.g. delaying marriage etc. and the Economic Justice Programme which is designed for young women (18-25 year).
The Economic Justice Programme is designed for participants from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who might or might not be in education currently, with access to hard skills, life skills, sport & leadership- and employability skills to start their economic empowerment journey. Within the education system, beneficiaries from this target group are not provided with (e.g. science education at exam level, English and computer) skills that prepare them for the job market or entrepreneurship. Their families and communities, often, put-up barriers for them to enter an economic pathway such as restrictions on mobility, freedom of choice e.g. on time being spend on study/career, job preference, and the presence of gender discrimination and gender based violence etc.
Beneficiaries of the project are 14 – 25-year-old participants of the Young People’s Initiative sport for development programme for adolescent girls. It builds on the knowledge, skills, attitude and behaviour that these school going girls develop in the process. They participate in awareness and goal setting sessions, training, internships and mentoring sessions. Selection is based on their goals and whether they can be met under this project. Many of the reasons that could exclude young women from the programme through regular selection (lack of time, safety, lack of skills) are often characteristics of gender inequality. Therefore, Maitrayana works with the young women and their parents to address this as a structural problem rather than accept it as a reason to discount them as beneficiaries.
The proposed objective for this grant is:
Under the project, Maitrayana will
Maitrayana is a girls and women’s rights organisation that leverages the power of sport to create ecosystems that empower girls and young women to exercise their rights and fulfil their potential. In its programmes it addresses gender inequality in the society by equipping girls and young women with assets such as knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviour and confidence that will enable them to make/influence decisions in their lives.
Maitrayana is a Not-for-Profit organisation under Section 8 of the Companies Act (since 2018). It is led by senior management with more than 60 years of experience in using sport as a tool for women’s empowerment. The YPI in Maitrayana started its implementation in October 2021. By March 2023, it had reached out to 5,284 adolescent girls and young women in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Maitrayana’s values are integrity, transparency, respect and inclusion.
The organisation has an active board and has an ambitious 5-year strategic plan 2023 – 2028. Besides working with adolescent girls and young women, it also works with families and communities and the wider ecosystem such as NGOs, companies etc to work towards its vision.